Standard Deck Tech: Inteleon VMax + Urshifu VMax - Columbus International

with the last International that took place at the end of June, based in Columbus, in the city of Ohio, in the United States, we had the consecration of Cyrus Davis as champion of the event, with the deck of Inteleon VMax with Urshifu VMax, both of the Rapid Strike (Rengeki) archetype.

Cyrus revitalized the Inteleon VMAX FST 79 card with new strategies in the Metagame, since now, with basic Pokémon with low HP, its ability became useful to KO the new Pokémon coming from Scarlet & Violet.

Decklist

Inteleon V & Inteleon VMax: the game's snipers

Inteleon V

What interests us in this case is the attack Aqua Bullet (W)(W)(C), which does 120 damage and chooses an opponent's benched Pokémon, which will take 20 damage.

Of course, if the opponent has a Manaphy BRS 41 in play, we'll have problems with the “sniper” effect.

Inteleon VMax

This is where the great premise of the deck comes from: you can use the effect of Inteleon VMax and accumulate it with others that you manage to put on the field. Assuming you manage to get two of them into play, you're adding 8 damage counters! And remember that damage marker is not equal to damage per sniper itself, going over Manaphy BRS 41, which cannot prevent damage from counters!

And this ability is very useful against Lost Zone decks, which use and abuse Pokémon with low HP like the attackers Sableye LOR 70 and Cramorant LOR 50, in addition to Pokémon that make the deck run, like Comfey LOR 79.

With the tendency of Pokémon from the new set to be low HP, excluding the “Power Creep” that occurred during the previous two blocks, the chances of Inteleon VMax taking down structural and recursive Pokémon is very high.

Here, the attack is just a complement of damage, as 140 does not knock out a Pokémon of rarities like V and ex, but it leaves the sequels - and other Pokémon can finish the damage, such as Medicham V EVS 83, guaranteeing the deck aggressiveness.

Urshifu V & Urshifu VMax -Rapid Strike- : the versatile striker

When we started with Rapid Strike Urshifu V BST 87, its strength is its defensive posture with its first attack, Strafe, which does 30 damage and retreats to the bench and in that, exchanges a Pokémon that is on your bench to be the new active.

We do this so that when it evolves into Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX BST 88, it can be promoted to the active position using the stadium card Tower of Waters BST 138, which benefits the retreat cost on paying two less colorless energy - so that the effect of his first attack, Gale Thrust, can deal 30 + 120 damage if Urshifu VMax is promoted to active position.

And of course, just as important, its second attack, G-Max Rapid Flow: Choose two Pokémon from your opponent's Bench, and this attack does 120 damage, but with the tribute of discarding all of your energies in the process. With this, we can analyze the situations:

- If the opponent has Manaphy BRS 41 in play, forget about this damage, as it has no effect.

- But if they don't have Manaphy BRS 41, it can take down many Pokémon with key abilities, such as, for example, Bibarel BRS 121, which is a great card in the format.

- And because of its fighting archetype, Urshifu VMax can do twice as much damage against colorless Pokémon like Arceus VSTAR CRZ GG70.

Medicham V: combo finisher striker

And here, we enter the knockout finisher. On its first attack, Yoga Loop, you choose 1 of your opponent's Pokémon and put 2 damage counters on it. If that Pokémon is Knocked Out by those counters, you may choose a new opponent's Pokémon to attack again and put 2 more damage counters on another of their Pokémon (skip the Check Up phase when you make the first attack - and if you used the Yoga Loop in the previous turn, you cannot repeat it).

Remember what I mentioned above about the ability of the Inteleon VMAX FST 79 to ping damage with energy discard counters? This is precisely the combo: put enough counters so that Medicham V EVS 83 can knock out multiple low HP Pokémon to ruin the opponent's game, preferably the "Single Prize" Pokémon with low HP.

But that doesn't stop us from knocking out some ultra-rare Pokémon like some V, VMax and ex, as long as they have very low HP to the point that they are knocked out for 2 damage counters (of course with a VMax it's a bit tricky, but against V and ex, it's not impossible).

Recursive Pokémon: draw combo

- Octillery BST 37 has its ability Rapid Strike Search, which makes it search the deck for cards named Rapid Strike, reveal them and put them in your hand. Serves supporter cards like Korrina's Focus BST 128 to draw more cards, stadiums like Tower of Waters BST 138 and the deck's special energies, Rapid Strike Energy BST 140.

- Radiant Alakazam SIT 59 has Painful Spoons, which means that during your turn, you can transfer 2 damage counters between your opponent's Pokémon in any way you want.

It is vital to also be able to close damage to Medicham V EVS 83, as it can move damage between your opponent's Pokémon, and you will use Inteleon VMAX FST 79 to accelerate this process.

- Lumineon V BRS 156 has Luminous Sign, which means that if you play it from your hand to the Bench, you search the deck for a Supporter card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. (It's the same principle as Tapu Lele-GX GRI 60 and Jirachi-EX PLB 60).

Trainer Cards

Supporters - searches and draws

- Professor's Research (Professor Sada) sv1 189 serves as “draw power”: discard your hand and draw 7 cards.

- Korrina's Focus BST 128 is used to draw cards until you have 6 in your hand.

- Irida ASR 147 searches for a Water Pokémon and an item-type card from the deck, reveals them, and puts them into your hand.

Supporter - energization

Here, the card serves as a great recycling resource combined with power-up, as it binds a basic Water Energy from the discard pile to one of your Pokémon V and, in doing so, draws 3 cards.

Supporter - Healing

Cheryl only works for evolved Pokémon, where if used, it needs to discard all cards attached to the Pokémon.

It will generally be used more for Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX BST 88, because it is the most vulnerable of all, since from the moment it discards all its energies, we are in a delicate situation.

Supporter - recycling

You can choose one of two effects, or both:

1) You can take up to two Pokémon from the discard pile and put them into your hand.

2) You can take up to two basic energies from the discard pile and put them into your hand.

Supporter - sabotaging the opponent's hand

Iono fuses the effects of its predecessors N FCO 105 and Marnie SSH 169 together: you and your opponent shuffle your hands and place them on the bottom of the deck. After that, you will draw cards from the top of the deck equivalent to the amount of prize cards you have in play, in this case, from each player's own game.

Example: if your opponent has 2 prize cards, and you have 4 prize cards and use that card as an effect, you shuffle your hands to the bottom of the deck, and in that, the opponent will draw only 2 cards and you will draw 4.

Items that favor your game's set-up

- Forest Seal Stone SIT 156 is a Tool type item that can only be equipped in Pokémon V, and which serves as a "VStar" power when applied - in this case, it makes it able to search for a card you want from your deck and put it into your hand.

- Echoing Horn CRE 136 serves to pull a Pokémon from the opponent's discard pile and bring it back to the game, on the opponent's bench

It's ideal for looping damage with Inteleon VMax with its ability to ping the damage counters and deliver one more accurate knockout, easily drawing another prize card.

- Battle VIP Pass FST 225 only serves the first turn of your first time playing by looking for two basic Pokémon and benching them.

- Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146 is used to search for a basic Pokémon in your prize cards. If you find one, you trade this Pokémon for that card and reshuffle the prize cards. If you don't find any Pokémon, simply discard the card.

- Ultra Ball sv1 196 serves to search for any Pokémon, whether evolution or basic, and can be common or ultra-rare Pokémon (it doesn't matter), as long as you meet the requirement of discarding two cards from your hand to be able to play it.

- Nest Ball sv1 181 is used to search a basic Pokémon from the deck and put it directly on the Bench.

Stadium

Tower of Waters BST 138 serves to help with the retreat cost of your Rapid Strike-style Pokémon.

This is for Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX BST 88 to use the effect of his first attack, Gale Thrust, and be able to deal 30 + 120 damage if Urshifu VMax is promoted to active position, if it needs to retreat one of your Rapid Strike Pokémon that is in active position, a recursive one that you want to take out of that position, like Octillery BST 37, for example.

Special Energy

Rapid Strike Energy serves as both Water and Fighting types for Rapid Strike Pokémon only, and even serves as two Energy at the same time.

Advantages

- Against single prize decks, like Lost Box.

- Against the United Wings deck.

- Against decks that have Arceus VStar since it has a weakness to the Fighting type.

Disadvantages

- Against electric archetype deck, like Miraidon ex.

- Ting-Lu ex deck, since the focus of the deck is blocking Pokémon skills (except Pokémon ex), and in this case, our Inteleon VMax and Octillery can be barred.

-Duraludon VMax if it is assembled as soon as possible before Urshifu VMax, to be a wall against Pokémon using special energy, since with, Duraludon, it doesn't suffer damage.

- Deck that uses Temple of Sinnoh ASR 155 to sabotage special energies, disrupting the use of Rapid Strike Energy BST 140.

It's a deck that surprised everyone by rescuing a forgotten Pokémon in the format,Inteleon VMAX FST 79.

Cyrus innovated bringing the dynamics of this Pokémon with Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX BST 88, which is also another one that was already gaining attention from players, as I mentioned in the article about Scarlet & Violet decks to play in 2023, where there were lists with Urshifu.

Until the next time!